It is this sentiment which justifies present publicity. The cases to which attention will be directed are not many; but they suffice to illustrate the practice, and to enable the reader to decide whether such experiments should meet approval or condemnation.
I. The Case of Mary Rafferty
An instance of human vivisection which ended by the death of the victim, occurred some years ago in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. It would be difficult to suggest a name for a hospital more suggestive of kindly consideration for the sick and unfortunate: and to this charitable institution, there came one day a poor Irish servant girl by the name of Mary Rafferty.
She was not strong, either mentally or physically. Some years before, when a child, she had fallen into an open fire, and in some way had severely burned her scalp. In the scar tissue an eroding ulcer— possibly of the nature of cancer,—had appeared; and it had progressed so far that the covering of the brain substance had been laid bare. No cure could be expected; but with care and attention she might possibly have lived for several months. We are told that she made no complain of headache or dizziness; that she seemed "cheerful in manner," and that "she smiled easily and frequently,"—doubtless with the confidence of a child who without apprehension of evil, feels it is among friends. The accident, however, had made her good "material"; she offered opportunity for experimentation of a kind hitherto made only upon animals. "It is obvious," says the vivisector, "that it is exceedingly desirable to ascertain how far the results of experiments on the brain of animals may be employed to elucidate the functions of the human brain."[1]
[1] This case, under the significant title, "Experimental Investigations into the Functions off the Human Brain," is related at length in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, vol. 93 (N.S., 67).
At the outset the experiments seem to have been somewhat cautiously made. Nobody knew exactly what would be the result. The experimenter began by inserting into Mary Rafferty's brain, thus exposed by disease, needle electrodes of various lengths, and connecting them with a battery. As a result, her arm was thrown out, the fingers extended, but in the brain substance no pain was felt. Presently, as the experimenter grew bolder, other phenomena appeared. The vivisector shall tell the story in his own words:
"The needle was now withdrawn from the left lobe, and passed in the same way into the (brain) substance of the right. … When the needle entered the brain substance, SHE COMPLAINED OF ACUTE PAIN IN THE NECK. IN ORDER TO DEVELOP MORE DECIDED REACTIONS, the strength of the current was increased by drawing out the wooden cylinder one inch. When communication was made with the needles, HER COUNTENANCE EXHIBITED GREAT DISTRESS, and she began to cry. Very soon, the left hand was extended as if in the act of taking hold of some object in front of her; the arm presently was agitated with clonic spasms; her eyes became fixed with pupils widely dilated; lips were blue, and SHE FROTHED AT THE MOUTH; HER BREATHING BECAME STERTOROUS; SHE LOST CONSCIOUSNESS AND WAS VIOLENTLY CONVULSED. The convulsion lasted five minutes, and was succeeded by coma. She returned to consciousness in twenty minutes from the beginning of the attack."
The experiment was a success. Upon the body of the poor servant girl, the distinguished vivisector had produced the "violent epileptiform convulsion" which Fritsch and Hitzig and Ferrier had induced in animals, by the same method of experimentation.
There are those who feel that further vivisecting should have then ceased, and that Mary Rafferty should have been allowed to die in peace. Such views, however, were not permitted by the experimenter to interfere with his zeal for scientific research. Other "observations" were made, and the needles were again passed into the brain, evoking almost the same phenomena. The final experiments were thus described by the vivisector:[1]
"Two days subsequent to observation No. 4, Mary was brought into the electrical room with the intention to subject the posterior lobes (of the brain) to galvanic excitation. The proposed experiment was abandoned. SHE WAS PALE AND DEPRESSED; HER LIPS WERE BLUE, AND SHE HAD EVIDENT DIFFICULTY IN LOCOMOTION. She complained greatly of numbness…. On further examination, there was found to be decided PARESIS and rigidity of the muscles of the right side…. She became very pale; her eyes closed; and she was about to pass into unconsciousness, when we placed her in the recumbent posture, and Dr. S. gave her, at my request, chloroform by inhalation.